3 of my Favorite Cheap & Healthy Dinner Recipes from Budget Bytes

When I was just learning how to cook toward the end of college and my first years post-grad, I was on a decidedly tight budget and in need of cheap meals. It was a pretty sweet deal to just have dinners to arrive on my plate in the cafeteria with zero thought or input from yours truly, but sustaining that lifestyle on the daily requires a job a few pay grades above mine.

Also, I was an AWFUL cook. Like truly bad. Could not make boxed cake to save my life bad. I think it was even my defining feature in my dorm. Oh, Lindsey, the one who burnt milk in the common room kitchen?

I can’t tell you all how glad I am that I entered adulthood firmly in the Age of the Internet. The only downside was that we were so far into food blog nirvana that it was difficult to not feel overwhelmed at times.

I know the idea of life having ‘seasons’ outside of the 4 that come to mind is pretty popular right now, but I’ve found that it’s really true for me. Does that sound kitchy? Right about now my season is feeling particularly out of my food budget given all the evenings spent at a restaurant patio, sadly.

Budget Bytes is an awesome food blog that’s focused on providing inexpensive recipes that don’t make you feel like you’re on a ramen-like diet. I’ve had my fair share of Kraft macaroni & cheese nights when I was 22, even that gets old no matter how close to my heart that orange powder is (hint: very). Beth, the woman behind the blog, writes such wonderfully detailed instructions for beginning cooks, and she gives the best advice on alternative methods or ingredients.

One of my favorite features of her site now is that you can adjust the number of servings on the recipes to make a big batch for friends or a large family or halve it for fewer people. I feel like her meals tend to lend themselves well to leftovers, so that’s why I only chose 3 this time around. I’ll be eating each of these twice this week so that I don’t have to cook too much!

Hey there,
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Take care